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Traditions, Not Coaches, Rule in N.F.L. Locker Rooms

When Joe Philbin told reporters on Monday that he was in charge of the Miami Dolphins’ workplace, he was no doubt referring to his role as the team’s coach. But the allegations involving bullying on Philbin’s team raise many nuanced questions about how much control N.F.L. coaches have over their players and their behavior.

Former and current players, coaches and general managers insist that every team is an unpredictable and fragile stew of ambition, ego and experience, and that no two locker rooms are the same. Winning teams can splinter because of an outsize personality or two. Weaker teams can outperform expectations when players put aside their agendas.

But by and large, N.F.L. coaches let their players, and especially their seasoned veterans, maintain harmony in the locker room. In the crudest sense, they are hired to build a winning team, and as long as players do their jobs well, what happens elsewhere is largely immaterial. Instead of monitoring locker room behavior, coaches, who are judged by wins and losses, are generally too busy reviewing video, poring over statistics and juggling a multitude of other tasks.

“Coaches could care less about what happens in the locker room because they have a job to do and we have a job to do,” said Trevor Pryce, a defensive end who played 14 years for the Broncos, the Ravens and the Jets. “We play for the highest bidder. Allegiances are very temporary. To some extent, the inmates run the asylum. The coaches have a lot of other things to deal with.”

Pryce added that not all coaches were the same. Those who have been in the league a long time tend to have more of a grip on the locker room, he said, than younger, first-time coaches.

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The suspension of Miami’s Richie Incognito raised the issue of bullying across the N.F.L.Credit
Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

On Sunday, the Dolphins suspended guard Richie Incognito amid allegations that he bullied Jonathan Martin, his teammate on the offensive line who left the team last week and has not returned. Philbin, a second-year coach, said he was unaware of Martin’s concerns about Incognito, who has a history of rough behavior.

Officially, the league, its teams and the players union adamantly oppose any form of bullying. Like any employer, teams are responsible for the welfare of their employees and conduct in the workplace, including locker rooms. The league has an Excellence in Workplace Conduct program that presumes “that all N.F.L. players and prospective players have the right to work in a positive environment that is free from any and all forms of harassment, intimidation and discrimination.”

The league’s personal conduct policy notes that N.F.L. players are “held to a higher standard” and are expected to act in a way that “promotes the values upon which the league is based.” Players can be disciplined for a host of offenses, including “violent or threatening behavior among employees” and “conduct that undermines or puts at risk the integrity and reputation of the N.F.L., N.F.L. clubs, or N.F.L. players.”

The league and its teams employ security officials who do background checks, monitor players off the field and help when they are in trouble. Some coaches, mindful that teams that stick together have a better chance of winning, forbid bullying and urge comradeship.

“Every team, you’ve got married guys, you’ve got single guys, you’ve got good-looking guys — we mostly have ugly guys,” Jets Coach Rex Ryan said. “You’ve got 53 guys in there, and every one of them is different, but the thing that binds you together is respect for each other, and I think that’s something that we certainly strived for.”

Bullying is often subtle and harder to identify than, say, a bar fight or a sideline tussle because it occurs in locker rooms, weight rooms, hotels and restaurants where few coaches or team officials are present. Giants CoachTom Coughlin said assistants and veteran players help police the team, but he recognized “that there is peer pressure involved” and “if it goes over the line, then of course we’re involved.”

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Miami Dolphins Coach Joe Philbin said he was not initially aware of Jonathan Martin’s concerns about his teammates.Credit
Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

That line, it seems, can be a blurry. Last year, Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul was videotaped carrying the second-year cornerback Prince Amukamara on his back through the team’s training facility and dumping him headfirst into an ice tub. Several teammates cheered as Amukamara emerged from the tub with a scowl.

Pierre-Paul apologized to anyone who thought he was promoting bullying, and Coughlin said the dunking would stop because a player could get injured. But several Giants seemed more upset by the publicity than the incident itself, which Justin Tuck, a captain, defended as “part of doing your dues.”

Amukamara said he was not bullied. “It was just fun in the locker room,” he said Monday. “Of course, no one would be happy getting thrown into a cold tub of water. But we know we need to respect our teammates and things can get out of hand sometimes.”

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Clearly, Martin thought things got out of hand in Miami. Philbin said Monday that he spoke several times with Martin and his family after he left the team Wednesday, and no allegations of bullying were mentioned. Early Sunday, the Dolphins issued a statement that said that “the notion of bullying is based on speculation and has not been presented to us as a concern from Jonathan or anyone else internally.”

Not long after, Martin’s representatives contacted the team and outlined allegations of player misconduct, Philbin said, forcing the team to do an about-face and suspend Incognito indefinitely. The N.F.L. is investigating.

That inquiry is unlikely to lead to any broader crackdown on bullying, said Sean James, who played two seasons in the N.F.L. in the early 1990s and started Be in the Know About Bullying, a nonprofit group that uses pro players to teach children about bullying. The N.F.L. is thick with traditions, including behavior outsiders might consider bullying, and many players and coaches consider them part of the culture.

But these practices leave little accommodation for players who, say, might have been abused as a child or who, desperate to be accepted, are made to pay for extravagant dinners and trips for veterans. And because these traditions are so pervasive, it is hard to police every locker room. “It’s a good old boys game,” James said. He added that Martin “might have been the guy who said, Enough is enough.”